Eziah Karter-Sabir Blake said President Barack Obama and his opponent, Republican candidate Mitt Romney, focus on economic issues, civil rights and other social issues that factored into his decision to vote.
“I’ve never voted before this election, but once I started to follow both candidates, I realized my life, the person I am and so many of the things I need and my community needs were in jeopardy because of what one candidates wants to do with this country,” Blake, co-chair of the Youth Leadership Committee for the Boston Alliance for Gay Lesbian Bisexual & Transgender Youth, said.
The youth vote could be more important than ever in deciding the future of several key issues, experts said, as Obama and Romney present distinct visions of the future of the country.
Fifty-one percent of young voters — about 23 million 18- to 29-year-olds — cast their ballots in 2008, a 2-percent rise from the 2004 presidential election, according to The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement. The turnout was the largest for young voters since 1992.
The increase was in part due to the overwhelming support young voters expressed for Obama, said College of Communication professor John Carroll, a political strategist and expert in political advertising.
“Barack Obama had a kind of personal magnetism that was very attractive to voters, also in the sense that he was going to usher in a new kind of politics,” Carroll said.
This time around, both Romney and Obama have struggled to mobilize the youth vote, Carroll said. Young people tend to feel discontent with Obama’s moderate leadership, partisan ties and economic struggles, while many also take issue with Romney’s inconsistencies in his platform and out-of-touch persona.
Obama can connect with voters on a number of issues, including college loans, jobs and higher education reform, as well as foreign policy, equal pay for women and civil rights within the LGBT community, said Massachusetts Democratic Party spokesman Kevin Franck.
School of Education sophomore Jeremy Bernier recently submitted his absentee ballot to his home state of Maine. He said he voted for Obama because of his stance on women’s rights and marriage equality.
“I could not vote for somebody like Romney,” he said. “So even if on the other issues I agree with him more, I could not vote for somebody who was against gay marriage.”
The Massachusetts Republican Party notes that young voters are most concerned about student loan debt, unemployment and other economic issues, said spokesman Tim Buckley.
“The job issue is really the number one, economic issues being number two,” Buckley said. “We hear a lot about the exploding deficit and what that means for people around the college age. The desire to get out of your parents’ house after graduation is also a very compelling issue.”
The GOP is hopeful, he said, that the Romney campaign “stressing the failures of the Obama administration on jobs, employment and the deficit, combined with the kind of new attempts of the Romney team to reach younger voters,” will motivate people to elect the Republican nominee.
Mara Mellstrom, vice-chair of the Boston University College Republicans, said the economy is more important than ever. College loan debt and unemployment especially resonate with young voters as prepare to graduate and enter the workforce.
Romney had a chance to rally young voters by setting himself apart from the economy of the past four years, Mellstrom said. However, she said, the Romney campaign does not seem to have made that push.
“I think the Romney camp had a phenomenal opportunity, and I think it definitely could have had major significant impact on his pulling ahead if they had reached out to those young voters,” Mellstrom said.
Nonetheless, Mellstrom said students should be more critical of the messages candidates project to young voters, as they tend to focus on the personas.
“This hope and change may be a very fruitful and successful campaign method, but when it comes down to it, being fantastical in the political world is never the right idea and never the right approach,” she said. “Politics isn’t about hope. It’s about priorities, and the economy should always come first.”
BU Democrats spokeswoman Margarita Diaz said students’ interests run the gamut, from jobs to gay marriage. Diaz said she noticed the differences between Obama and Romney on issues such as the budget, education reform, equal pay and gay marriage.
“There are two candidates who have very different views about what direction to take the country,” she said. “It’s a topic of conversation.”
If students do not vote, Diaz said, they miss the opportunity to choose the future of those key issues.
“They’re missing out on a chance to really use their voices,” she said. “They’re missing out on a chance to really have a say in issues that affect their daily lives.”
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